Separate from the game's single-player mode, Monaco's cooperative mode allows up to four players to partake in heists and robberies in different locations. Players choose one of eight characters, each of which has a unique and beneficial skill. The story consists of four acts; the first three follow characters' recollections of prior experiences and the final act is played from the perspective of the police.

Development of Monaco began while lead developer Andy Schatz was working for TKO Software and before he founded his independent company, Pocketwatch Games. The soundtrack was composed by American composer Austin Wintory. Andy Nguyen—whom Schatz met while he was looking for playtesters—helped with the development of Monaco as a level designer and producer, and also worked in festival booths. Majesco Entertainment handled the release of the Xbox 360 version after Microsoft Game Studios rejected it twice because of marketability problems.

The game was positively received by reviewers and won two awards at the 2010 Independent Games Festival. Critics praised the cooperative modes highly but said the single-player was inferior because there was less gameplay. Many comparisons were made between Monaco and other media, most commonly the 1960 heist filmOcean's 11. Reviewers liked the art style and said the minimalist design suited the game.

Contents

Monaco is a stealth and action video game with a top-down perspective. The game features both single-player and cooperative modes and allows up to four players to partake in heists and robberies.[1] There are eight characters, each with different traits and advantages; the Locksmith, the Cleaner, the Lookout, and the Pickpocket are available immediately while the Mole, the Gentleman, the Redhead, and the Hacker must be unlocked by completing levels.[2][3] The Locksmith can open doors twice as quickly as the other characters; the Cleaner can put guards to sleep; the Lookout is able to see enemies who are not in the player's direct line of sight; the Pickpocket owns a coin-collecting monkey; the Mole can dig through walls and open vents quickly; the Gentleman has the ability to temporarily change his appearance, making the player less detectable to enemies; the Redhead can charm enemies into not attacking and making characters follow her; and the Hacker has the ability to upload computer viruses to security systems, shutting them off temporarily.[4][5]

Many in-game items, including smoke bombs and C4 explosives, as well as firearms including a shotgun and a machine gun, can be picked up.[6][7] The quantity of the gun's ammunition is limited and is replenished by collecting ten coins that are scattered around the game's map. In the cooperative mode, only the player who collects the coins receives more ammunition.[8][9] Levels can be completed in many ways based on the characters chosen by the player or players.[10] When playing in single-player mode, unlocked characters can be used to play through any level.[2] In cooperative mode, players work together to complete the levels; if one of the players dies, another must revive him or her before finishing the level.[9]

Act one depicts the Locksmith being questioned by Inspector Voltaire about his recent actions with the Pickpocket, the Cleaner, and Lookout. They discuss the characters' imminent deportation from prison in Monaco and escape on a truck alongside another inmate, the Mole. They meet the Gentleman while stealing passports and money to be smuggled out of the country; the Gentleman says he is under house arrest but manages to leave. They board the Gentleman's booby-trapped yacht and try to leave harbor; while doing so, The Gentleman receives a telephone call from a man named Davide, after which the boat detonates. After getting help at a hospital, the thieves help the Gentleman dispose of evidence from a previous heist and rescue his girlfriend, the Redhead. They steal valuables and hire the Hacker. While attempting to steal from a casino, they are caught by the police and taken back to prison.

Inspector Voltaire then interview the Pickpocket, saying the Locksmith has already told him everything. The Pickpocket remembers the events differently. His recalls that the Hacker, the Redhead, and the Gentleman were also on the getaway truck. The Gentleman was in legal turmoil for money-related issues, so, after escaping, the thieves retrieve the money. This intrigues Inspector Voltaire, who believes the money was used to smuggle them out of the country, but it was actually used to smuggle weapons. The Pickpocket reveals the crooks purposefully blew up the boat to distract Interpol. Though Inspector Voltaire is unaware, the Gentleman is actually Davide and the thieves had adjusted the evidence of Davide's "murder". After confessing all of this to Inspector Voltaire, the Pickpocket reveals he was a spy sent by Interpol. The Pickpocket says the Gentleman has assumed Davide's identity and that if Inspector Voltaire attempts to confirm the story, the Gentleman will know one of his accomplices is a spy.

In exchange for asylum, Inspector Voltaire then interrogates the Lookout for information on the thieves' backgrounds. He asks about the Mole, whom she says has already been caught. She then tells him about herself and says she steals because of "a moral debt".[11] When discussing why the Locksmith disregards the law, she recalls the time when he had his hand broken after being caught counting cards in blackjack. When discussing the Pickpocket, she informs Inspector Voltaire he used to be rich before he was arrested. The Lookout informs Voltaire the Hacker had also been in trouble before; he was caught trespassing in Interpol's headquarters. She says the Gentleman garnered the nickname "The Rat" because he was responsible for calling the police and getting everyone put back in jail.[12] The Lookout tells Inspector Voltaire the Redhead used to be called the Blonde and was caught burgling the Gentleman's house, and they fell in love. The final thief she tells him about is the Cleaner, who she says is acting on behalf of his disabled brother. After disclosing this information, they begin discussing asylum.

The final act is based around Inspector Voltaire and Candide, a constable. Both are told the Locksmith, the Lookout, the Pickpocket, and the Hacker have escaped from prison. The two officers try and fail to recapture the thieves, who meet the Gentleman, for whom Candide works. Candide poisons Inspector Voltaire and the Mole disposes of the body.

Andy Schatz accepting the award at the 2010 Independent Games Festival for "Excellence in Design" after fifteen weeks of development

When Andy Schatz pitched the game to Microsoft Game Studios, it was turned down. Schatz responded, saying "they were crazy", and asked if he could repitch the game, to which Microsoft agreed.[13] He worked on it for another year to make it more marketable before repitching it; Microsoft again rejected the game. After these events, Schatz thought the game would not be released on the Xbox 360, disappointed him. He felt the platform and its marketplace were was easy to work with and that it would have made an ideal platform for the game. Schatz considered releasing the game on PlayStation 3 but did not.[13] Empty Clip Studios was hired to port the game to the RapidFire engine so it could be released on the PlayStation 3, but the port was never finished.[13] To publish the game on Xbox Live, Schatz partnered with video game publishing company Majesco Entertainment.[1][14]

Schatz met Andy Nguyen while looking for playtesters in 2011; he described Nguyen as a man he "clicked with" who made an energizing work environment.[13] Schatz hired Nguyen to work in festival booths and to sell the company's merchandise at events. Nguyen did not know how to program, but he eventually became a level designer and producer for Monaco.[1] During its development, Nguyen left his job at Citibank to devote more time to the game and to Pocketwatch Games.[1]

The soundtrack for Monaco was composed by Grammy-nominated Austin Wintory, who had previously composed scores for Flow and Journey. The original soundtrack and a remixed album called Gentleman's Private Collection were released on April 24, 2013. The soundtrack incorporates pianos and drums into what Christian Donlan of Eurogamer said was one of Wintory's best works yet.[15] Schatz originally used licensed music but asked Wintory to replace some of it with original pieces. Wintory later persuaded Schatz a complete original soundtrack was warranted.[16] When Wintory was excited by the request because it involved using humorous "old-timey piano", saying, "when else am I ever going to be asked to write anything remotely like this?"[16]Gentleman's Private Collection contains remixes of the original soundtrack by other composers, including Peter Hollens, Tina Guo—who played the violin in the Journey soundtrack—and Chipzel who composed the soundtrack for Super Hexagon.[17] The full soundtrack and Gentleman's Private Collection were released onto Wintory's Bandcampmicrosite.[18][19]

Monaco was released for Microsoft Windows on April 24, 2013; the Xbox 360 version was delayed until May 10 that year.[20] The Mac and Linux versions were released on July 3 and October 21, 2013, respectively.[21][22] Since the official release, Pocketwatch Games has updated the game to include more levels and mini-games, including two campaign entries titled "Origins"[23] and "Fin", the final chapter released to allow the developers to focus on Tooth and Tail.[24]

Monaco was positively received by critics, garnering "generally favorable reviews" for both the desktop and Xbox 360 releases.[36][37] Despite praise, the Xbox 360 release sold poorly and Andy Schatz believed this was because of the weak demonstration version, the delayed release, and the bugs in the multiplayer mode.[39]

The cooperative mode, one of the main selling points of the game, was lauded by reviewers. Marty Sliva (IGN) regarded it as being one of the best co-op experiences he had in a while, stating that the gameplay mechanics made it was one of the most unique and addictive games released in 2013.[3] Jeff Grubb (VentureBeat) echoed Sliva's praise, noting the game's ability to be both an arcade and a strategic game.[40] James Murff (GameFront) said the mode had good replayability.[41] Aaron Riccio (Slant Magazine) said of the PC version, "A few griefers are a small price to pay, however, for the experience of a well-oiled four-player game of Monaco, and for the assistance this provides toward unlocking the entirety of the second campaign, which, as if channeling The Unusual Suspects, returns you to previous areas, but with an entirely new perspective."[42] Despite the almost universal praise for the cooperative mode, reviewers did not express the same admiration for the single-player mode. Grubb said the game should be skipped if there were no plans on playing it cooperatively.[40] Scott Nichols (Digital Spy) agreed and remarked that while the game contained lots of content to discover, it is best done cooperatively.[35] Danielle Riendeau (Polygon) considered the single-player mode unfinished and said it needed work.[34] Roger Hargreaves (Metro) differed from the many other reviewers and said that while he preferred the cooperative modes, he called the single-player "surprisingly compelling".[43] David Sanchez (GameZone) called the game "a bold game that gives you a lot of reasons to care about it. As a single-player venture, you can find a whole lot of enjoyment out of just stealthily completing heists. Playing with friends means you can coordinate a good looting job and assign specific tasks to everyone involved. Meanwhile, engaging in co-op with strangers makes for a hectic good time."[44]

Some reviewers criticised the repetitiveness of the levels. Francesco Serino (Eurogamer Italy) criticised the variation between levels and said it was not too long before he was seeing similar levels because of the game's simplicity. He said the levels are usually well made but are too often made for certain characters, which adds more gameplay because of the time it takes to discover the best strategies to complete a level.[45] Alex Navarro (Giant Bomb) proposed a similar viewpoint, stating some of the later levels turned into "tedious exercises in trial-and-error".[2] Anton Bjurvald said he fell in love with the simplicity of the graphics and liked the majority of the gameplay but that it seemed like the game's artificial intelligence was too easy to fool.[46]

Reviewers compared Monaco to other games and films; the most common comparison was to the 1960 heist filmOcean's 11. Scott Nichols compared it to Ocean's 11 because "with its ensemble cast, daring break-ins and carefully laid plans, it has all the makings of an interactive heist flick".[35] Anton Bjurvald (Eurogamer Sweden) also compared the game to Ocean's 11.[46] Roger Hargreaves said he felt the game was "Ocean’s Eleven meets Pac-Man and Metal Gear Solid". He compared it to Pac-Man because of the maze-like levels.[43]

Monaco sold enough copies for Andy Schatz to have "no complaints".[47] By March 2014, the game had sold over 750,000 copies[48] and by that September, it had sold over a million.[49]

^Pocketwatch Games. Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine. Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, Mac OS X, Linux. Pocketwatch Games. Level/area: Origins: Prologue: The Lookout. The Lookout: 'But the soldiers came and took everything. There's a moral debt that's owed to me. The way I see it is the law doesn't apply until I'm paid back in full'

^Pocketwatch Games. Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine. Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, Mac OS X, Linux. Pocketwatch Games. Level/area: Origins: Prologue: The Gentleman. The Lookout: 'The Hacker knew how to put us in touch with The Rat once we were out.' Inspector Voltaire: 'The Rat?' The Lookout: 'The one who called the cops on us. The man responsible for putting us back in here. You probably know him as the Gentleman.'